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Author: gbump

Detecting agricultural pests through sound

NPR

(Emily) Bick, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researches ways to better detect the agricultural pests that drive serious economic losses worldwide. She says improving these methods could result in using pesticides more strategically — less often, at just the right time.

For Two-Job Workers, There Aren’t Enough Hours in a Day to Stay Afloat

Wall Street Journal

“One story is that people are short of cash, and they need extra hours and the only way to pick up extra hours is by picking up a short-term job,” said Christopher Taber, chairman of the economics department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Another story is that it’s easier to work two jobs now than it was before.”

4 years into COVID, isolation continues for some disabled residents

ABC News

Patients have been harassed or mocked for wearing masks in public, Dr. Jeannina Smith noted, despite international and national medical organizations emphasizing the importance of mask wearing as a mitigation tactic for illnesses. Hill has experienced this first hand.”You can’t look at someone and know that they’re receiving immunosuppression for an organ transplant or an autoimmune condition, and they remain at risk,” Smith said.

UW-Madison releases updated protest policies ahead of fall semester

Daily Cardinal

Revisions to the protest policy include restrictions on “expressive activity” within 25 feet of university facility entrances, size limitations for signs in buildings, specific sound amplification restrictions and restrictions on protest activity during select times on campus areas typically used for photos like the Abraham Lincoln statue at the top of Bascom Hill.

Middleton company trying to make your phone operate faster wins Madison Pressure Chamber competition

Wisconsin State Journal

SixLine was founded in 2022 by Katy Jinkins, a former materials science PhD graduate from UW–Madison. Jinkins focused her academic work on integrating carbon nanotubes—straws of carbon atoms, ten thousand times thinner than a human hair—into electronics. Her work began in Professor Mike Arnold’s lab in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and led to multiple papers and patents that cover alignment techniques and the integration of carbon nanotubes into electronics, which is the basis of SixLine.

People Battle the Heat During UW-Madison Move-In

WKOW – Channel 27

“We moved some of our check-in locations indoors, so that our staff and people waiting in line are not having to be out in the heat for today, because we know it’s pretty extreme,” said Brendon Dybdahl, UW-Madison Housing Marketing & Communications Director.

Study: Less than one-third of UW-Madison off-campus housing considered affordable

Wisconsin State Journal

The study confirmed what is largely already known through reams of anecdotal evidence: Nearly 70% of rentals are too expensive, costing individual students $1,000 or more in rent each month per student, often hundreds of dollars above what the students consider affordable; the cheapest apartments are often furthest from campus and more run down; and UW-Madison is one of the most expensive off-campus housing markets in the Big 10 conference.

Harris, Trump in a tug-of-war for Wisconsin union voters

The Capital Times

Historically, union leaders have been closely aligned with the Democratic Party, said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But the modern rank-and-file members, much like those at Local 180 in Racine, are more split, Burden said.

“There’s a little bit of a gap, I would say, between where unions as organizations stand relative to the Democratic Party and Kamala Harris, and where average union voters are,” he said.

UW poised to join studies of pig organ transplants in people

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison researchers have been working with eGenesis, one of two companies that supplied gene-edited pig organs for four transplants on the East Coast in critically ill patients who died within a few months. The companies are seeking federal approval to start larger clinical trials, and UW could be a site.

Sandra Deanna Paske

Wisconsin State Journal

Then in 1986, she was hired by UW-Madison, General Library System where Sandra remained until she retired with emeritus in 2011 as Head of Microimaging Services. During Sandra’s tenure with the UW-Madison library system, she played a key role in the establishment and development of the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center.

UW study asks: How much of an inner voice do you have?

Wisconsin State Journal

Gary Lupyan, a UW-Madison psychology professor, is looking at why some people report high levels of inner speech and others have little or none. In a recent study involving UW students, those with more inner speech did better at two language tests than those with less inner speech, but there was no difference on more visual and math-oriented tasks.

Union members aren’t just voting on labor this year

NBC News

Dahlia Saba, an electrical engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is undecided, but only on whether to vote for Harris or not at all. Her top issue is the war in Gaza. Saba had family members in the region who were able to evacuate earlier this year and is disappointed with the Biden-Harris administration’s robust support for Israel.

UW-Madison Medical School White Coat Ceremony celebrates diverse backgrounds in medicine

WMTV - Channel 15

“For the faculty, this is a big day, these are our newest students that we’re welcoming, and we’re so excited to see them,” said Associate Dean in the School of Medicine and Public Health, Christine Seibert, “It’s honestly renewed our faith in the medical profession, we see this young idealistic excited group of people who want to join us in what is sometimes very hard work.”

Her life was in danger, and she needed an abortion. Insurance refused to pay

NPR

Obstetrician-gynecologists from across Wisconsin had decided that “in cases of previable PPROM, every patient should be offered termination of pregnancy due to the significant risk of ascending infection and potential sepsis and death,” said Eliza Bennett, the OB-GYN who treated Ashley. Ashley needed an abortion to save her life. The couple called their parents; Ashley’s mom arrived at the hospital to console them. Under the 1849 Wisconsin abortion ban, Bennett, an associate clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, needed two other physicians to attest that Ashley was facing death.

Duane Anderson

Wisconsin State Journal

He managed National Food stores in Madison for many years and then was employed by University Housing until his retirement in 1990.

Are You Sure Your House Is Worth That Much?

The Atlantic

“Homeowners, whether they know it or not, definitely are taking on more risks,” says Philip Mulder, an assistant professor of risk and insurance at the University of Wisconsin’s business school. A 2023 paper, for instance, found that U.S. residential properties are overvalued by $121 billion to $237 billion for current flood risks alone.